107. Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler- Trudi Kanter

Vienna, 1938: Trudi Miller, young, beautiful and chic, designs hats for the smartest women in the city. She is falling in love with Walter, a charming and charismatic businessman. But their idyll is about to end. Trudi and Walter are Jewish, and as Hitler’s tanks roll into Austria, they know they have to flee. (Goodreads 2014)

Original Review pre-blogging era:

Doing nothing will get us nothing”. Trudi Kanter was a HBIC and this memoir was …well, it managed to be moving, disturbing and enjoyable despite the grim circumstances of it.

Let’s see if I can expand on this a bit more, but that is the general direction this review is heading in.

“Doing Nothing will get us Nothing”

Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler: A True Love Story, is …well, it’s the true story of a young Jewish girl who wishes to become a milliner- unfortunately she is living in Vienna around the time of the invading Nazi Occupation, this also makes it a very inconvenient time to fall in love- or maybe the best time? This is a memoir which spans the length of World War 2, as Trudi Miller and her lover Walter have to sacrifice everything in order to survive throughout the Nazi invasion of everything they thought was safe, not just their country, but their careers, their friendships, their families- anything they could touch, they could taint.

The one thing that stands out about this memoir was the incredibly strength and bravery shown by Trudi and Walter. I get the same feeling from reading any account of a survivor of World War two. It makes today’s problems feel so small and insignificant in comparison. It helps to be a reminder that actually things are nowhere near as bad as they could be. I can’t lie- I read this back in September 2013 and it will be coming up on the re-reading pile soon. But I gave it five stars, I thoroughly enjoyed it and cheered for Trudi the entire way through the memoir, so even with my memory being a little bit fuzzy on the details I know that this is one that definitely deserves a little more spotlight attention and I am happy to spread the word about it!